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Judge in Manning Case Won’t Dismiss Charge of Aiding Enemy. NYT.

Moving Forward with cases of espionage, here are the latest about Wikileaks leaks, while awaiting the other case airing from Russia.

In February, Private Manning, a 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst,admitted to having leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. He denied that he was guilty of 12 counts, including aiding the enemy, but pleaded guilty to 10 lesser offenses that could have put him in prison for up to 20 years.

The aiding-the-enemy charge carries the death penalty, but the government had said it would not pursue capital punishment, but rather life in prison with no chance of parole. Under military law, aiding the enemy applies to “any person who aids, or attempts to aid, the enemy with arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things; or without proper authority, knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to, or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly.”

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, said the government had provided sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Private Manning knowingly gave information to certain enemy groups such as Al Qaeda when he passed hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks in 2009.

The defense argued in court on Monday that Private Manning did not act voluntarily and deliberately in aiding the enemy when he leaked the documents. But Colonel Lind concluded that Private Manning did have “actual knowledge” that the intelligence he leaked would end up in the hands of the enemy.

Colonel Lind also decided not to drop a lesser charge, which was an offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

On July 8, 2016, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the United States.1

The U.S. is in its seventh consecutive year of expansion. The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 percent and household net worth is close to pre-crisis peaks. Nonetheless, the economy has gone through a temporary growth dip in the last two quarters. Lower oil prices led to a further contraction in energy sector investment and a strong dollar and weak global demand have weighed on net exports. On the upside, real household disposable income is growing at 3 percent, the housing market is growing at a healthy clip, and the current fiscal and monetary policy mix is supporting the economy.